Annexed from Guilford in 1779, Randolph County was named after Peyton Randolph, the first president of the Continental Congress. The county seat of Asheboro received its name from Samuel Ashe, NC’s ninth governor who served from 1795-1798.
Centrally located in the state’s Piedmont region, Randolph is 90 miles from the Blue Ridge Mountains and 200 miles from the coast. The county is home to portions of the Uwharrie and Caraway mountains. Randolph’s centralized location in the state contributed in part to its selection in 1967 for the North Carolina Zoo, in Asheboro atop Purgatory Mountain. The NC Zoo is the country’s largest natural habitat zoo and is one of only two state-supported zoos in America (the other is in Minnesota).
Duke University’s origin story begins in Randolph with Trinity College. Trinity was the final iteration of the county’s higher education institute that was founded in 1839 as Union Institute. Union Institute became Normal College, the state’s first accredited teacher’s college, and finally, Trinity in 1859, which was a liberal arts school. For decades, the school struggled to secure financial support. Leadership believed in order for the college to be successful, it needed to relocate to an urban area. In 1892, Trinity College moved to Durham where it became one of the strongest liberal arts schools in the South. Trinity became Duke University in 1924 following the establishment of the Duke Endowment and the transformation to a university.
Randolph is also renowned for its pottery. Seagrove, NC is the largest concentration of potters in the country, with over 80 potters and 50 shops. Owens Pottery, founded in 1895, is the oldest pottery shop in NC and is a personal favorite of one Differentiator. The county is also home to the Classic Motorcycle Museum in Asheboro and the Richard Petty Museum in Randleman. Famed NASCAR legend Richard Petty was born in Level Cross and his fish fry remains a North Carolina political staple.
Politically, Randolph is one of the state’s most historically solid Republican counties. FDR was the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry the county in 1940. Like Carteret last week, Republicans typically receive over 70% of the vote. In 2016, Trump received 77% and fared a point better in 2020.
Roughly 1/3 of the county’s population resides in either Eden or Reidsville. While Reidsville also found success in textiles, the city found its economic mainstay in tobacco when the American Tobacco Company established its headquarters and flagship plant there. Following the American Tobacco Company’s sale and closure in 1994, tobacco manufacturing companies Commonwealth Brands and ITG took over the plant for years at a time until closing the plant in 2020.
The city of Reidsville is named for the family of Reuben Reid, who owned the home and inn the town was built around. Reuben’s son, David Settle Reid, would go on to be North Carolina’s 32nd governor, as well as a member of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. The Governor Reid House, built around 1881, is one of the many historic homes Reidsville is noted for and was the first building in Reidsville to be listed on the Register of Historic Places.
Politically, the county solidly favors the GOP, with statewide Republicans receiving more than 60% of the vote. The last presidential Democratic candidate to win the county was Bill Clinton in 1992.
